TransCanada fired up for Mexico fuels

TransCanada Corporation will team up with Mexico’s Sierra Oil & Gas for the development of a marine terminal and accompanying transportation infrastructure in Mexico, the two companies announced late on Tuesday.

The project, valued at USD 800 million, will include a 900,000-barrel inland storage and distribution centre and a 265-km refined products pipeline running to the planned marine terminal at Tuxpan on the Gulf Coast. The 100,000-bpd conduit will run parallel to the US$2.1 billion Sur de Texas-Tuxpan gas pipeline, awarded to the TransCanada-IEnova joint venture in June.

In statements to Bloomberg, TransCanada president for Mexico Robert Jones said, “We are extremely excited for this project which represents an important expansion of our portfolio in Mexico.”

“There are not that many markets in the world where you can build a refined products infrastructure project of this scale, and Mexico is one of them,” Sierra CEO Ivan Sandrea told Bloomberg in an interview.

TransCanada will head the endeavour on a 50% stake. Sierra Oil & Gas Holding has a 40% share while Grupo TMM, a Mexican integrated logistics and transportation company, holds the remaining 10%. Work on the project will commence in the second quarter of 2017, with the first of the marine terminal’s four docks to start operations by early 2018.